Sports
For all his greatness, Ronaldo fails to conquer World Cup
Cristiano Ronaldo built one of football’s greatest careers over more than two decades, deciding matches, inspiring teammates and defying age to remain among the sport’s elite long after his celebrated spells at Real Madrid, Manchester United and Juventus.
But the one trophy that always eluded him remained out of reach on Monday, as the 41-year-old saw his sixth and final World Cup end in heartbreak. Portugal was eliminated 1-0 by Spain in the round of 16, leaving Ronaldo in tears at the final whistle.
Portugal’s campaign came to a crushing end when Mikel Merino scored in the 91st minute to seal Spain’s victory in Arlington, one day after Ronaldo calmly confirmed that this tournament would be his last World Cup.
As he walked out of his final prematch news conference to applause from reporters on Sunday, Ronaldo said he had no regrets about a career that pushed the limits of excellence and endurance for more than two decades.
Portugal coach Roberto Martinez praised Ronaldo’s commitment after the match, describing him as an icon of the sport.
“We will always be grateful for what he tried to do at this World Cup because the dream was to win the World Cup, and he led by an incredible example as captain,” Martinez said.
“This is not the moment to look beyond what we’re talking about: a football icon. There are not many Cristiano Ronaldos.”
27 matches, 11 goals
Ronaldo’s World Cup record includes 27 appearances and 11 goals. Fittingly, his only knockout-stage goal came last week to help Portugal eliminate Croatia, briefly keeping alive the dream that had accompanied him since his debut in 2006.
That first World Cup also produced his deepest run. At 21, Ronaldo was part of the Portugal team that reached the semifinals before losing to France.
In the quarterfinals, he calmly converted the decisive penalty in a shootout victory over England, a moment that still lives in Portuguese memory and seemed at the time to foreshadow greater triumphs. They never came.
For much of his international career, Ronaldo appeared to carry the weight of Portugal’s ambitions on his shoulders.
But the landscape changed as a new generation of talent emerged, and by this tournament, questions persisted over whether he should still be a guaranteed starter.
Against Spain, the veteran played the full 90 minutes and had three shots but was unable to make the decisive breakthrough.
Opponents paid tribute to one of the game’s greats, who against Spain produced what was arguably his finest World Cup performance in 2018, scoring a hat trick in a 3-3 group-stage draw that included a stunning free kick in the 88th minute.
“I’m a great admirer of him, of his values, of what he stands for, of how he approaches the sport, and I think he’s a role model for young people,” Spain coach Luis de la Fuente said after the game.
“Whenever we have the chance to be together, we acknowledge our mutual admiration and the pride we feel at knowing him.”
Messi rivalry
Ronaldo largely avoided questions throughout the tournament about comparisons with Lionel Messi. Still, as his World Cup story comes to an end, the contrast is difficult to ignore. Their rivalry defined an era but never fully extended to the World Cup stage.
Messi guided Argentina to the 2014 final before winning the title in 2022, while Ronaldo’s World Cup campaigns repeatedly ended in disappointment.
There was, however, the possibility of a World Cup meeting.
Had Portugal topped its group instead of finishing behind Colombia, and had both teams continued advancing, Ronaldo and Messi could have met in the quarterfinals.
“It would be top,” Ronaldo said of the potential showdown after scoring twice in Portugal’s 5-0 rout of Uzbekistan in the group stage, his best performance of the tournament in North America.
For a player who conquered nearly every other challenge the sport had to offer, that sense of what might have been will accompany Ronaldo’s World Cup farewell.
The 2026 World Cup may be remembered more for FIFA’s bold embrace of American sports traditions – from hydration breaks and halftime shows to championship rings – than for which team claimed the trophy.
From mandatory “hydration” breaks that effectively split matches into four quarters to championship rings, a halftime show and an ever more tightly packaged entertainment product, FIFA embraced elements of the U.S. sporting model with enthusiasm.
Some of those innovations will probably be remembered as novelties of an American-hosted tournament – while others may prove harder to dislodge. The mid-half breaks, brought in throughout the competition regardless of whether conditions strictly required them, were introduced by FIFA on player-welfare grounds in a tournament played through the heat and humidity of a North American summer.
Once established, they also created something football has traditionally resisted: two scheduled interruptions in the middle of each half. For coaches, they became tactical timeouts.
For broadcasters, they offered natural windows that could one day carry enormous commercial value. But for supporters accustomed to football’s continuous rhythm, they made matches feel increasingly divided into four quarters.
That is where the legacy question becomes more pertinent. The breaks are likely to be discussed for future World Cups, not least because player welfare offers FIFA an obvious rationale for retaining them and because the commercial potential of fixed mid-half pauses will be difficult for the sport’s decision-makers to ignore.
Yet any attempt to normalize them globally would meet resistance, particularly in Europe, where football’s relative freedom from stoppages remains one of the characteristics supporters most fiercely defend. UEFA has said it will not bend its rule that hydration breaks cannot exceed one minute.
The tournament therefore became a test case for how far FIFA is willing to reshape football in the image of the market in which it is being played. The answer is: quite far.
Blurred lines
The winning team, Spain, received championship rings, a tradition imported directly from North American sport, while the showpiece final itself featured a major halftime entertainment production that has drawn obvious comparisons with the Super Bowl and led to a 27-minute interval, shooting past the sacrosanct 15-minute halftime period.
Neither changes the absolute fundamentals of the game. But they contributed to a sense that FIFA was no longer merely bringing the World Cup to the United States but increasingly adapting the World Cup to American sporting culture. There was an irony in that. Across the tournament, American cities experienced much of what has always made international football distinct: vast traveling support, flags filling city centers, supporters singing for hours before and after matches and national teams carrying a sense of identity that no franchise model can easily reproduce.
The United States appeared to be absorbing the culture of football. At the same time, FIFA seemed intent on absorbing the culture of American sports entertainment and projecting it to fans worldwide. The tournament was also unavoidably political, with FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s close relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump becoming one of its defining off-field themes. To critics, Infantino’s proximity to Trump often went beyond the diplomatic courtesies normally expected between the head of a global sports body and the leader of a host nation. The controversy surrounding Folarin Balogun’s disciplinary case brought those concerns into especially sharp focus after Trump publicly praised FIFA’s handling of the matter following his own intervention. FIFA said its judicial bodies acted independently and autonomously, but the episode reinforced an impression among some that the line between football governance and political influence had become uncomfortably blurred.
Referring debates
The tournament’s inevitable refereeing controversies added another layer of unease. Officials were asked to enforce a game operating under new rules and interpretations while also managing familiar pressures over consistency, player protection and the growing influence of technology.
The result was a World Cup in which debate often moved beyond whether one decision was right or wrong and toward something more fundamental: whether the laws of the game had become too complicated for players, coaches and supporters to understand in real-time. New interpretations were meant to bring greater clarity and consistency, but the tournament frequently demonstrated how difficult both can be to achieve.
VAR remained central to major decisions, but technology did little to eliminate argument. On some occasions, it merely shifted the argument from the referee’s judgment to the interpretation of slow-motion images and technical language. That was compounded by a wider atmosphere of suspicion around officiating, with conspiracy theories amplified on social media and referees often unable to answer back.
FIFA refereeing chief Pierluigi Collina dismissed allegations of bias and said match officials operated with complete independence. On the pitch, the expanded 48-team format produced a mixed verdict. There was more football, more countries and more opportunities for nations previously not included in the sport’s biggest event.
The expanded knockout phase gave the group stage additional jeopardy, but the sheer scale of 104 matches made this World Cup feel less like a concentrated festival and more like a vast sporting season squeezed into a matter of weeks.
That size suited FIFA’s commercial ambitions and the geography of the hosts , but whether it improved the sporting product is more debatable. The tournament still delivered what World Cups always do: new heroes, fallen favorites, national heartbreak and moments that cut through the noise surrounding the event. Its most lasting legacy, however, may not be a match or a champion, but the precedent it has created. The real test of that will come in 2030.
Palestinians gathered at cafes in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza to watch the 2026 FIFA World Cup final, erupting in celebration as Spain defeated Argentina to claim the title.
The screening offered residents a few hours away from the pressures of war and the hardships of daily life in the enclave.
Many in the crowd backed Spain in recognition of its support for the Palestinian people.
“We came together to support Spain because it has stood by the Palestinian people for years,” Numan Abdullah, a Gaza resident who watched the match, told Anadolu Agency (AA).
He said the gathering also carried a message of peace and solidarity with countries that stand with Palestinians.
“We are a people who seek peace,” Abdullah said.
Spain won the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Sunday after beating Argentina 1-0 in extra time in the final, securing its second world title after its triumph in 2010. Argentina, meanwhile, failed to retain the title it won at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Thousands of jubilant fans in Madrid erupted into Queen’s “We Are the Champions” after Spain clinched the World Cup title Sunday.
Even passengers on an Iberia flight were treated to the anthem by the British rock band.
The Iberia pilot could barely contain himself after safely landing the plane at Madrid airport, announcing: “We are world champions, ladies and gentlemen, dear passengers.”
La Roja – as the national side are known – beat 2022 champions Argentina 1-0 after extra time in New Jersey to secure their second “star” having also won in 2010.
No one in Madrid was likely to get much sleep, such were the celebrations in the city, which erupted close to midnight (10 p.m. GMT) when the final whistle was blown on a match that the Spanish dominated before Ferran Torres secured victory with a goal in extra time.
The horns of cars blared, though they were not going far with the hordes of people who flooded the streets, cheering raucously and blowing vuvuzelas – the instrument that became a feature of the 2010 World Cup hosted in South Africa.
Thousands dressed in the team strip, brandishing the national flag, and with their faces painted, had already gathered to watch the final on a giant screen in the centre of the capital city.
Flares and fireworks also lit up the sky and 25-year-old Diego gasped with disbelief that for the second time in his relatively short life, his country had won the biggest trophy in the sport.
“We won the Euro in 2008, then the World Cup: two years ago we won the Euro again and now once more we have won the World Cup,” he purred.
He said he would grab some sleep before awaiting the arrival of the returning heroes because “we must also celebrate that.”
Around 1 million people are expected to line the parade route, with additional security and transport measures planned to handle the crowds.
‘Going to Cibeles!’
“It is crazy to think we are singing it because at one point we no longer believed it would happen,” said 26-year-old Alejandra Silva, who had to raise her voice to be heard.
Her friend Angela Lambea, 30, said it would have been unfair if superstar Lionel Messi and his side – whose overly physical tactics eventually resulted in Enzo Fernandez being sent off – had gone on to win.
“We deserved it, we played really well, we had the ball the whole time, Argentina barely touched it. We are totally overcome with emotion,” she said.
Both of them were keen to carry on the celebrations, though, with the caveat that they had to work Monday.
Cries of “Campeones, campeones!” (“Champions, champions!”) and “Que viva Espana!” rang out.
Indeed, their celebrations were mirrored across a football-mad country of around 50 million people, although some of the younger revellers would have had no memory of the earlier glory nights.
One who did is 40-year-old John Molina, who remembers the first World Cup victory, in the final against the Netherlands 16 years ago, which he said was “a dream” at that time.
He already has his eyes on where he will carry on celebrating: “We are all going to Cibeles,” the square where Real Madrid supporters gather to fete their club’s trophies.
Molina and others may as well stay on – though the detritus of Sunday night and Monday morning’s celebrations will have had to be cleared away quickly – as Rodri, Lamine Yamal and their teammates will end their victory parade there later Monday.
It promises to be another party to remember.
Spain reclaimed the FIFA World Cup for the first time in 16 years after Ferran Torres struck in extra time to give the European champions a hard-fought 1-0 victory over defending champions Argentina in Sunday’s final at MetLife Stadium.
Torres came off the bench to score the tournament’s biggest goal early in the second period of extra time, sealing Spain’s second World Cup title after a gripping contest that remained deadlocked for more than 105 minutes.
Spain dominated possession and dictated the tempo throughout the final but were repeatedly frustrated by Argentina’s disciplined defending and another outstanding display from goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, whose string of spectacular saves kept Lionel Messi’s side alive deep into the match.
The turning point arrived in second-half stoppage time when Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez was shown a second yellow card for a reckless challenge on Pau Cubarsi, reducing the defending champions to 10 men before extra time.
With the numerical advantage, Spain continued to pin Argentina inside their own half, patiently moving the ball in search of the breakthrough against a defense determined to force penalties.
The decisive moment finally arrived early in the second half of extra time.
Nico Williams produced an intelligent knock-back into the penalty area, where substitute Torres met it with a composed first-time finish beyond Martinez to spark wild celebrations among the Spanish players and supporters.
It was Spain’s first goal in a World Cup final since Andres Iniesta’s famous winner against the Netherlands in 2010, and it proved enough to crown Luis de la Fuente’s side world champions.
Spain’s triumph capped a remarkable tournament built on defensive discipline and complete control of matches.
The European champions conceded only one goal across seven games, overwhelming opponents with their slick passing, relentless pressing and possession-based style while blending experienced leaders with emerging stars such as Lamine Yamal and Cubarsi.
Their dominance was evident in the final, where they controlled long stretches of possession and created the better chances despite Martinez’s heroics. The Aston Villa goalkeeper repeatedly denied Spain with a series of outstanding saves that appeared destined to force a penalty shootout.
Argentina, meanwhile, fell just short in their bid to defend the title they won in Qatar four years earlier.
Messi, appearing in a record third World Cup final, led another resilient campaign as Argentina again showed the fighting spirit that defined their tournament. They survived dramatic knockout matches, rallying from the brink against Egypt before overturning a deficit to eliminate England in the semifinals.
But Fernandez’s late dismissal proved costly as Argentina’s depleted lineup struggled to contain Spain’s relentless pressure during the additional 30 minutes.
The defeat also ended Argentina’s hopes of becoming the first nation since Brazil in 1962 to retain the World Cup.
For Spain, the victory confirmed their return to the summit of international football under De la Fuente. The coach has transformed the team into one of the world’s most complete sides, combining technical excellence, tactical discipline and youthful energy to deliver another golden chapter in Spanish football history.
FIFA has removed more than seven million potentially abusive posts and comments on social media during the 2026 World Cup, a figure the governing body said is 14 times higher than the number recorded at the previous tournament in Qatar.
With the 48-team tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada set to conclude Sunday with the final between Spain and Argentina at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, FIFA said its Social Media Protection Service has played a key role in identifying and limiting online abuse directed at players, coaches, officials and teams.
The protection program, introduced ahead of the 2022 World Cup in partnership with global players’ union FIFPRO, has been made available to all participating teams and individuals.
It combines artificial intelligence tools with human moderation to monitor harmful content across social media platforms in more than 50 languages.
FIFA said it has reported more than 200,000 insulting and intimidating messages during the tournament and taken appropriate action. More than 1,000 cases involving exceptionally serious threats have been forwarded to relevant authorities for further investigation.
The governing body said the scale of abuse has increased significantly compared with the 2022 World Cup, partly because of the expanded 48-team format and the wider reach of social media during the tournament.
Since launching the service, FIFA said it has analyzed more than 250 million posts and comments across its competitions, removing or limiting the visibility of more than 30 million abusive messages.
During the 2026 World Cup, the system has monitored millions of interactions, identifying racist abuse, threats, discriminatory language and other forms of online harassment.
FIFA said racial abuse accounted for more than 11% of the abusive content detected during the tournament’s early stages.
The service works by automatically detecting harmful messages and hiding them from targeted users before they appear on their profiles.
Posts flagged by the system are then reviewed by specialists, with serious cases reported to social media companies or law enforcement agencies when necessary.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has repeatedly condemned online abuse, saying hate speech has no place in football or society.
The fight against online toxicity has become a growing issue across global sports, with players and officials increasingly targeted by abusive messages after major matches.
FIFA said its protection measures are designed not only to remove harmful content but also to create a safer digital environment for those involved in the game.
The FIFA World Cup trophy will arrive at the 2026 final in signature style after Louis Vuitton unveiled the bespoke trunk that will carry football’s most coveted prize to New York New Jersey Stadium, continuing a partnership that has become one of the tournament’s defining ceremonial traditions.
The French luxury fashion house has once again been entrusted with designing and crafting the custom case that will transport and present the iconic 18-carat gold FIFA World Cup Trophy before the championship match on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
It marks the fifth consecutive men’s World Cup for which Louis Vuitton has created the official Trophy Trunk, following editions in South Africa in 2010, Brazil in 2014, Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022.
Handcrafted by master artisans at Louis Vuitton’s historic workshops in Asnières-sur-Seine, near Paris, the trunk blends the brand’s traditional craftsmanship with one of the world’s most recognizable sporting symbols.
The exterior is wrapped in Louis Vuitton’s signature Monogram canvas and finished with leather trim, gold-plated brass hardware and reinforced corner protectors. Dominating the front panels is a hand-painted golden “V,” representing both “Victory” and “Vuitton,” while mirroring the gleaming finish of the World Cup trophy itself.
Inside, the trunk is lined with soft beige leather and features a commemorative Louis Vuitton-FIFA partnership patch. The interior is custom-built to securely protect the trophy throughout its journey while also serving as its presentation case during the tournament’s closing ceremony.
The original FIFA World Cup Trophy, designed by Italian sculptor Silvio Gazzaniga, stands 36.8 centimeters (14.5 inches) tall, weighs about 6.175 kilograms (13.6 pounds) and has been awarded since 1974, replacing the Jules Rimet Trophy. Unlike previous trophies, the original remains FIFA’s permanent property and is kept at the FIFA Museum in Zurich between tournaments. Winning teams receive a gold-plated replica rather than the original.
Before the trophy is presented to the 2026 champions, it will make its ceremonial entrance inside the Louis Vuitton trunk, carried onto the field by the brand’s ambassadors alongside a FIFA legend.
“For over a decade, Louis Vuitton and FIFA have shared an unwavering commitment to excellence, bound by a shared belief in sport’s power to inspire and bring people together,” Louis Vuitton Chairman and CEO Pietro Beccari said in a statement.
“We are thrilled to continue this partnership for the FIFA World Cup 2026. At its heart stands the world’s most coveted trophy, a symbol of dedication, collective ambition and the ultimate celebration of victory.”
FIFA Chief Business Officer Romy Gai also praised the collaboration, saying the Trophy Trunk reflects the prestige, heritage and global appeal of the World Cup while celebrating craftsmanship and football excellence.
The partnership illustrates the growing relationship between elite sports and luxury brands. Tiffany & Co. has crafted the Vince Lombardi Trophy awarded to Super Bowl champions since the inaugural game in 1967, while Louis Vuitton has expanded its presence across global sports by producing bespoke trophy trunks for Formula 1, the Australian Open, the Rugby World Cup, the America’s Cup and several other premier events.
To commemorate the 2026 World Cup, Louis Vuitton is also releasing a limited-edition capsule collection inspired by the Trophy Trunk, including luxury watch cases and a travel trunk that echo the design of the official presentation case.
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